Posts Tagged ‘music’

By Brian Taylor Goldstein, Esq. Dear Law and Disorder: What rights does a translator have? I translated a non-English script into English. All of the prior translations were very bad, which is why I did my own. Everyone agrees mine is the best, even the original author. However, now that I am getting offers […]

By Brian Taylor Goldstein, Esq. Dear Law and Disorder: An orchestra commissioned one of our artists to make an arrangement of a work for them to perform. We agreed that it would be a “work for hire.” Now, the orchestra wants to record their performance of the arrangement and has come to us asking […]

By Brian Taylor Goldstein, Esq. Dear Law and Disorder: A longtime friend who is also a very successful artist who I greatly respect, asked me to do a project with him. He sent me a contract, but it doesn’t cover things like when and how I get paid. I want to mark up the […]

By Brian Taylor Goldstein, Esq. Dear Law and Disorder: We are in production of a new “Tribute” show with a video component. We are grappling with what type of media is public domain or where public domain photos or video can be found. None of the video production companies seem to have a definitive […]

By Brian Taylor Goldstein, Esq. Dear Law and Disorder My ensemble has been approached by a composer/musician who would like them to do two days of recording for music that she is composing for a theater company. My understanding is that this theater company does quite a bit of touring. Do musicians typically get […]

By Brian Taylor Goldstein, Esq. A conductor we manage has been invited to conduct one of the orchestras of a University in the United States later this year. He has worked there once before when he conducted performances when he had a J-1 visa. On this occasion however due to the short length of the […]

By Brian Taylor Goldstein, Esq. Dear Law and Disorder: I have written a one-man show. Do I need to get a dramatic license for background music? Just to make sure we’re all on the same page, let’s review: In order for music to be “performed” (either live or via a recording) in a public […]

By Brian Taylor Goldstein, Esq. Dear Law and Disorder: What’s the new “normal” in reviewing and exchanging contracts? We are receiving an increasing number of contracts that had been issued as PDF files coming back as word files or even revised PDF files which means I have to read every single line of the agreement […]

By Brian Taylor Goldstein, Esq. Dear Law and Disorder: A composer has been commissioned to write an ‘original’ work for a particular soloist or specific chamber ensemble. The commission agreement stipulates that the performing artist is granted exclusivity, giving the artist a certain period of time in which he/she has the sole right to perform […]

By Brian Taylor Goldstein, Esq. Greetings, I have recently been contacted by ASCAP asking for fees based on music played by live musicians. Are we required to pay if we do not pay the musicians? Any musician who plays at the location is not compensated for their efforts. Is anyone else who works at or […]